FLANAGAN AT CENTRE OF NEW O'LOAN PROBE
Flanagan at centre of new O'Loan
By STEPHEN DEMPSTER
THE bitter hostility between Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan and former Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan is set to be renewed as part of a new investigation by her office.
Accusations that he misled a colleague in the course of his work form part of a major new Ombudsman's inquiry, the News Letter has learned.
A PSNI source said: "There is absolutely no love lost between Nuala O'Loan and Ronnie after the public blame game they had over the Omagh bomb investigation.
"This is shaping up to be round two of the battle, because Ronnie could stand to be accused of covering up for Special Branch and the intelligence services."
He continued: "The Ombudsman's team have been down to Newry. They are looking back at the death of RUC Constable Colleen McMurray in Newry in 1992, when the car she was travelling in was bombed by the IRA.
"Also in the car was her colleague Paul Slaine. He lost both his legs in the attack.
"Later, Paul learned of claims that RUC Special Branch had been tipped off that the bombing was imminent but nothing was done to prevent it.
"My understanding is that he confronted Ronnie face-to-face about the claims and Ronnie assured him that there was no way Special Branch had prior warning. But the claims kept resurfacing."
Sir Ronnie, who was unavailable for comment last night, has always been adamant there had been no prior warning.
The family and friends of Colleen McMurray approached the Ombudsman in February this year to make a formal complaint about fears that the attack on her could have been prevented.
Former Army agent Kevin Fulton, in an interview published by the News Letter last year, said he was adamant that in the three days before the attack at Merchant's Quay, Newry on March 27,1992, he had warned his MI5 handlers and a member of RUC Special Branch that the bombing was imminent.
He said he had told MI5 and the Special Branch man, who was named as Brian Fitzsimmons - later killed in the Chinook helicopter crash on the Mull of Kintyre in 1994 - that the IRA was preparing a "doodle bug" bomb to be set off by a camera flashlight.
Fulton said he did not know where the device would be used, but he did know who was making it and has always believed that the bombmaker could have been put under immediate surveillance.
MP Jeffrey Donaldson used Parliamentary privilege in January 2001 to allege that convicted IRA member Joseph Patrick "Mooch" Blair was the bombmaker.
It has also been alleged that Blair was also an informer, who may have been allowed to carry-out the bombing to protect his cover.
Ombudsman investigators are currently in the process of trying to prove or disprove these claims and have been to Newry to trace ex-RUC and current police officers.
The police source said that one fact that they have established, which until now had gone unreported, is that officers in Newry on the day of the murder were pulled off the ground in the hours before the bombing.
A source in Newry said: "A coded warning went out to-all officers to return to Newry station. The code was not used except in particular circumstances.
"There was no explanation for it but there was obviously some sort of concern out there for them to call everyone in.
"It would seem to suggest that either Special Branch or another arm of the intelligence services had information which worried them enough to pull everyone back to base. But then they were allowed back on to the ground and the attack happened."
By STEPHEN DEMPSTER
THE bitter hostility between Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan and former Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan is set to be renewed as part of a new investigation by her office.
Accusations that he misled a colleague in the course of his work form part of a major new Ombudsman's inquiry, the News Letter has learned.
A PSNI source said: "There is absolutely no love lost between Nuala O'Loan and Ronnie after the public blame game they had over the Omagh bomb investigation.
"This is shaping up to be round two of the battle, because Ronnie could stand to be accused of covering up for Special Branch and the intelligence services."
He continued: "The Ombudsman's team have been down to Newry. They are looking back at the death of RUC Constable Colleen McMurray in Newry in 1992, when the car she was travelling in was bombed by the IRA.
"Also in the car was her colleague Paul Slaine. He lost both his legs in the attack.
"Later, Paul learned of claims that RUC Special Branch had been tipped off that the bombing was imminent but nothing was done to prevent it.
"My understanding is that he confronted Ronnie face-to-face about the claims and Ronnie assured him that there was no way Special Branch had prior warning. But the claims kept resurfacing."
Sir Ronnie, who was unavailable for comment last night, has always been adamant there had been no prior warning.
The family and friends of Colleen McMurray approached the Ombudsman in February this year to make a formal complaint about fears that the attack on her could have been prevented.
Former Army agent Kevin Fulton, in an interview published by the News Letter last year, said he was adamant that in the three days before the attack at Merchant's Quay, Newry on March 27,1992, he had warned his MI5 handlers and a member of RUC Special Branch that the bombing was imminent.
He said he had told MI5 and the Special Branch man, who was named as Brian Fitzsimmons - later killed in the Chinook helicopter crash on the Mull of Kintyre in 1994 - that the IRA was preparing a "doodle bug" bomb to be set off by a camera flashlight.
Fulton said he did not know where the device would be used, but he did know who was making it and has always believed that the bombmaker could have been put under immediate surveillance.
MP Jeffrey Donaldson used Parliamentary privilege in January 2001 to allege that convicted IRA member Joseph Patrick "Mooch" Blair was the bombmaker.
It has also been alleged that Blair was also an informer, who may have been allowed to carry-out the bombing to protect his cover.
Ombudsman investigators are currently in the process of trying to prove or disprove these claims and have been to Newry to trace ex-RUC and current police officers.
The police source said that one fact that they have established, which until now had gone unreported, is that officers in Newry on the day of the murder were pulled off the ground in the hours before the bombing.
A source in Newry said: "A coded warning went out to-all officers to return to Newry station. The code was not used except in particular circumstances.
"There was no explanation for it but there was obviously some sort of concern out there for them to call everyone in.
"It would seem to suggest that either Special Branch or another arm of the intelligence services had information which worried them enough to pull everyone back to base. But then they were allowed back on to the ground and the attack happened."
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/535
Published Date: 06-Apr-04
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